Message from the Chair

Thank you for taking time to visit the CNATCA website! We are actively searching for stories from communities and businesses throughout the corridor about innovations and perspectives that address sustainability of our rural corner of the world. I invite you to take a picture of your downtown and tell us a story about some of the challenges you are identifying and ideas or experiences in addressing them.

Two of our favorite topics, trade and transportation, have been in the news and keep us in a familiar spot, waiting. NAFTA negotiations, to the extent we get any information, are either going well or are on the verge of collapse. Autonomous vehicles are either already on the road making deliveries and operational or are on hold and prohibited until further developments. So we find ourselves waiting, but in anticipation that both produce useful results.

The CNATCA Board is deeply concerned about potential impacts to the corridor communities arising from NAFTA negotiations. Like many of you, we are caught in the backwater of silence as we wait to hear what if any changes are adopted. We are hopeful that free trade will continue across our borders and that new opportunities arise that can be actualized on a rural community level. The CNATCA Board has committed to creating a series of forums for corridor communities and businesses to learn and exchange ideas on the eventual NAFTA agreement. Look for us to publish some commentary as the process develops. We are in the final stages of presenting our first op-ed piece on this subject and we hope to serve a useful role in connecting corridor constituents to accurate and useful information.

Our long-standing interest in the implementation of autonomous vehicles and technology to improve rural community access to markets is as strong as ever. Recent events in the media make it clear that there are still a few bugs in the system—in this case, the type of bugs that have the potential to injure and even kill people—at least in vehicles operating on public streets. However, there is a committed level of investment and development from numerous companies in this technology that will achieve some level of commercial viability—and significantly improved safety—in the foreseeable future.

When it comes to technology, there is no better way to stay informed than to hear from the experts. CNATCA and the City of Estevan invite you to join us at the Trade, Transportation and Technology Conference on April 26, 2018. This event will take place at the Southeast College in Estevan, SK, Canada. Mayor Roy Ludwig and Economic Development Coordinator Dwight Fitz Bramble have organized a terrific lineup of thought leaders and innovators in technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. For more information and to register follow this link: Trade, Transportation and Technology.